Top Ten Smoothie Making Tips

I use a Smoothie2Go smoothie maker that was a gift. I like it because it’s simple, cheap and easy to clean, so it hasn’t been used once and ignored! Summer is coming and I’m feeling fruity! I thought you might be too so here are my top ten smoothie making tips.

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• Use recipes. If you are new to smoothies don’t be scared to follow someone else’s plan. Once you get used to making them you’ll get more adventurous, but at the start, before you are sure which fruits complement each other, use some recipes.

• Use a cheaper juice as the liquid. Smoothie makers smooth and blend fruit into a liquid but they need some liquid to start with! Use common juices as a base, orange, pineapple, apple. Later when you try new things branch out into coconut, cranberry or guava.

• Don’t add ice. Some people will suggest you add ice when blending to cool the smoothie, don’t. Ice just dilutes the smoothie and might stop the fruits blending. If the fruit is very warm the ice will melt even faster and not make a noticeable difference. Try using a chilled ‘base juice’

• Use frozen berries and fruit. Perfect to make a frozen smoothie but without ice! Buy a bag of frozen berries in the supermarket and you’ll always have fruit on hand for a smoothie. Or freeze your own when it’s in season.

• Add alcohol to a frozen smoothie. Make your own exotic cocktail (over 18s only) to drink on a sunny day or after work …mmmmm… almost healthy.

• Smoothies are best made and drunk fresh. Storing them is OK but they can separate or change colour as the fruit acids oxidise. Short term storage won’t hurt you but kids might be put off by the ‘weird’ look. So try and drink them fresh.

• Use milk and yogurt sometimes instead of (or with) fruit. Lots of recipes for more filling smoothies are out there. Ice cream is another fun dairy based addition, mix and match some flavours and make your own thick shakes. Honey is good as a sweetener for both milk and fruit based drinks.

• Warm smoothies are nice! You can make warm smoothies using milk bases and oats, apple, honey and cinnamon for example, tastes like apple pie! Delicious, and great for bedtime.

• Buy some smoothie straws. Ordinary straws are too narrow for smoothies. ‘Bits’ will get stuck in the straw and the power you need to suck a thick juice up a thin straw is surprising! Buy a box of wider smoothie straws, and maybe long spoons for those really thick frozen smoothies.

• Once you are used to the proportions of fruit/frozen fruit/juice or milk etc, take some risks and try your own recipes. Try some of your favourite fruits together. Experiment with tinned fruits too. Some fruits are more watery and bland than others, you need very few raspberries to add flavour but most strawberries are tasteless for example (in my opinion) Fruit that is getting past its best is great in a smoothie…bananas looking over ripe? Make a banana ice cream smoothie!

Good luck – Do you have a favourite recipe to share?